Just (vs. unjust)
Is the universe a place where you get what you deserve and deserve what you get? This primal can be thought of as a belief in cosmic fairness, proportionality, karma, rewarding righteousness and judging sin, Newton’s 3rd law, or just the idea that what goes around comes around. Its opposite holds that the world is a fundamentally unfair place where your—or anyone’s—chance of getting what you deserve is slim to none.
Karma is kind of like Newton’s third law, so every effect has an equal and opposite effect or every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
— Focus group participant, Hindu, 2014
Just is part of the big-three primal Safe. It is the only primal that was well-studied before the UPenn primals project started its work. In fact, it dates back to 1980, when Melvin Learner, a prominent psychologist, published a book on his research titled The Belief in a Just World.
Since then, numerous studies point to three broad outcomes. People who see the world as a Just place tend to (a) work harder and are more productive because the world rewards working hard, (b) be nicer to others because the world rewards being nice, and (c) blame people for their troubles, including the poor, criminals, the sick, and victims of crimes like rape, because the world punishes being lazy, immoral, and unkind.
Hard work pays off.
— Seth Aaron, upon winning season 7 of Project Runway, 2010
Seeing the world as more Just is related to resilience. When a bad thing occurs, one way that it can get better is if a fair, benevolent, karmic force intervenes. A study published in 2025 examined people who experienced a major health challenge. It found that those with a higher baseline Just scores tended to experience less anxiety and depression while ill. Two other primals, Improvable and Regenerative, also helped protect from negative effects.
This finding was confirmed in a second study, this time of students following a college campus shooting that looked at Safe, the broader world belief that Just falls under. It found that students who scored higher on Safe prior to the shooting tended to move around campus more freely after the shooting.
Just is also related to politics. Republicans tend to see the world as more Just than Democrats. Also, among Republicans, seeing the world as Just helps predict if you supported Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential primaries. However, Hierarchical world belief is more predictive of voting behavior and political views.
There is more research still to be done!
